Network links used to carry information traffic throughout a network by nature have limited capacity to carry traffic. Network operators must attempt to ensure both quality of service (QoS) guarantees for services provided, and service level agreement (SLA) requirements to customers. When an SLA requirement and/or a QoS guarantee are not met, then corrective action may be necessary.
As the level of traffic utilizing a network link can greatly fluctuate at any given time, and trends in usage can vary over periods of time, IP networks must be able to adapt to changing trends in traffic on the network in order to efficiently utilize resources of the network, and ensure QoS and satisfy SLA requirements. While network operators can reconfigure the network in such a way as to increase the overall capacity of the network, due to the costs associated with increasing capacity (such as by adding new network elements and links), it is desirable to not unnecessarily increase capacity.
Therefore, there is a need for monitoring of the network for problems associated with SLA requirements and QoS guarantees, analyze such problems, and provide prompt and efficient solutions to such problems.